A little help goes a long way toward improving the prospects of a poor Anapra family.
By Fr. John Wanaurny

Augustin and Joanna with David (left) and Jorge and a box of food and supplies purchased with the help of Columban benefactors.

At some point during their eight years they have lived together, Joanna became hooked on drugs. A lot of money Augustin earned at his job was wasted on her habit.

When Augustin’s brother became ill and soon died, Joanna seemed to lose hope. She began to drink.

Because of debts, Augustin lost the small business he had with his late brother. Eventually Augustin and Joanna decided to leave the area, hoping for a change in life.

That’s when they arrived in the colonia of Anapra, just west of Juárez, where we Columbans have a parish. The couple managed to rent a room for two months. Then a neighbor let them build a one-room house consisting of cardboard attached to a wood frame.

The change had done Augustin and Joanna good: Gone were the days of drugs and alcohol; Augustin found work parking cars at a restaurant; and Joanna was employed in a maquiladora, one of the many factories along the United States-Mexico border.

Gerardo looked after Jorge and David. Augustin and Joanna married. Everything was looking up.

‘As Bad As It Gets’
Then Augustin lost his job. Joanna’s father, who suffered from alcoholism, then had a stroke and could no longer care for himself. She left her job to devote herself to his care. The couple managed to build a second room of cardboard for him. But life grew worse rapidly.

At this point Joanna says an angel crossed her family’s path. Now I’ve been called a lot of different things in my life, but never an angel.

Augustin and Joanna’s home is built with cardboard attached to the house’s wood frame.

So I walked up and started a conversation with Augustin and Joanna. I had a look around: dirt floor, no running water or electricity, very little food, and Grandpa on an old couch in the second room.

There was only one thing to do. I and my friend Jose Luis, a good handyman, went out and bought everything necessary for tapping into the electric wires that are strung overhead throughout Anapra and running the electricity into the house. While Jose Luis worked, I bought a box full of essential food and supplies.

A few days later, Augustin and I bought a gas stove with two burners and a tank of gas. Joanna’s father was a problem. He could not swallow solid food.

The Sisters of Charity, with whom we work in Anapra, advised me to buy him Carnation Instant Breakfast. He loved it.

I also got him a regular supply of adult diapers. It all helped to relieve his suffering before he passed away six months later.

Before the winter set in, I gave them many blankets and bought them a wood-burning stove to heat the little house.

Things are beginning to look up again. David and Jorge are in school. Gerardo is working. Augustin gets some odd jobs, and Joanna will seek employment in a maquiladora.

In all of this, I was only a go-between. The money to pay for all these supplies came from relatives, friends and Columban benefactors.

They were the ones who in their generosity were more aware of sorrow and suffering than pleasure. They were the ones sensitive to the needs of others. They were the ones who, in partaking of the Eucharist, lived its meaning of love for others in a very concrete manner.

Columban Father John Wanaurny of Chicago was ordained in 1959 and has worked in Anapra’s Corpus Christi Parish since 2001.